The study of eco-tourism, which has been rapidly expanding as a
social
phenomenon, provides a new perspective for understanding concepts of
nature
in cultural anthropology. To begin with, eco-tourism depends upon an
important
factor, Nature, referring to the social as well as physical dimensions
of the natural world. We must also explore the social effects that
international
tourism may cause, such as mass migrations of tourists from all over
the
world into one locality and changes in two societies; both the society
that sends tourists and the society that accepts them. Thus, the study
of eco-tourism must take into account structures formed by natural
environments
and culture.

Nature has a two-fold meaning which is culturally constructed. On
the
one hand, Nature appears in front of us as a physical presence and as
an
object for our enjoyment. Let us call this aspect "physical nature."
On the other Nature has an abstract meaning and plays an active role in
shaping the behavior of tourists. We call this aspect,
"socially-processed
nature." By focusing on the two-fold meaning of Nature, this work
attempts to grasp tourists' understanding of the natural world. The
study
of eco-tourism makes it possible to understand, in relation to various
views of Nature, how everyday life is affected by the globalization of
tourism. This work, a case study of eco-tourism in Costa Rica, examines
a cultural process in which Nature becomes central to the lives of the
people in both developed and underdeveloped countries. This paper also
argues that definitions of Nature have driven people to cast physical
nature
in Costa Rica as "a place worth living in." [*2]

Since there are numerous definitions of eco-tourism, causing some
confusion,
this paper gives operational definitions for (1) eco-tour, (2)
eco-tourists,
and (3) eco-tourism respectively as follows. [*3]

(1) Eco-tour

An eco-tour is a sight seeing excursion in
physical
nature. It can feature such events as walking on trails in tropical
forests,
cruising on creeks in swamps to see animals and plants, making field
trips
to iguana farms and butterfly farms, and watching sea turtles laying
their
eggs. Eco-tours in Costa Rica take various forms such as group tours,
individual
trips, and guided tours.

(2) Eco-tourist

Eco-tourists are tourists who join an
eco-tour. They
fall into two categories: Costa Ricans and foreigners. This paper takes
account of their ethnicity and social class.

(3) Eco-tourism

Eco-tourism is a set of social phenomena that
the nature-based
tourist industry creates in contemporary society. The study of
eco-tourism
should examine relations between everyday life and environmental
issues,
such as environmental destruction (pollution and deforestation),
environmental
protection (preservation of forests and landscapes), sustainable
development,
and a global view of Nature.

According to Nelson Graburn, tourism falls into two categories:
Culture
Tourism and Nature Tourism. He further divides Nature Tourism into
Environmental
Tourism and Ecological Tourism. In Ecological Tourism, tourists enjoy
in
the setting of "socially-processed nature" itself, whereas, in
Environmental Tourism, tourists consume "physical nature" as
a playground for camping, hunting and gathering. As Graburn points out,
Ecological Tourism originated from Environmental Tourism[*4], where
Nature
is used as the environment for various activities such as camping and
hunting.
In other words, the eco-tour is a hunting trip without killing animals.
Eco-tourists carry binoculars instead of guns.

2. Eco-tour and Eco-tourists

An anthropological study of tourism involves three steps. First,
a researcher
isolates several human factors involved in tourism, such as a set of
"Hosts
and Guests"[*5] or a combination of tourists, indigenous people to
be seen, and the middle (wo)men. Second, a researcher describes each
factor,
and third, examines the interactions between them. This approach is
seen
in the work of van den Burghe, who identifies essential factors of
ethnic
tourism in southern Mexico. In his ethnographic study of San Cristobal
de las Casas in Highland Chiapas, van den Burghe[*6] examines the
interactions
between people according to the following three categories: (1)
tourists,
(2) indigenous people as the tourist objective, and (3) middle (wo)men
such as tourist agencies, souvenir vendors, transportation providers,
and
local and federal governments. Whereas ethnic tourists have interests
in
indigenous life, customs, and folk handicraft, in the eco-tour tourists
have interests in physical nature, such as plants, animals, and
ecology.
The eco-tour thus consists of three factors: (1) the tourists, (2)
physical
nature, and (3) middle (wo)men. I will describe these three factors
composing
eco-tourism in Costa Rica.

(1) Tourists

Tourists in this setting fall into two sub-categories: Costa
Ricans
and foreigners. The Costa Ricans are not active participants in
eco-tours.
An ethnographic work on the Costa Rican national culture, which builds
on research conducted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, contends that
the Costa Ricans like to go for picnics and play their radios loud[*7].
Wealthy Costa Ricans take car journeys to natural parks on weekends.
The
Santa Rosa National Park in the Province of Guanacasute in the
northwest
of the Pacific coast has seen the number of domestic tourists
increasing
(see Fig.1). It is also true that Costa Ricans have recently become
interested
in eco-tours, because the mass media tells them that their country has
become a major global attraction for eco-tourists. A new stereotype of
the Costa Ricans, that "they love nature and are kind to foreign
tourists,"
seems to have joined the existing stereotype that Costa Ricans are
highly
educated, peace-loving, and mainly middle class. However, the tourist
activities
of Costa Ricans are far from what this work defined as an eco-tour.
They
still remain at the level of enjoying environmental tourism.[*8]

Foreign tourists are the real participants in the eco-tours in
Costa
Rica. According to a government census, 579,457 tourists entered Costa
Rica by way of the Juan Santa Maria International Airport in 1995.
North
Americans, particularly from the United States, comprise the majority
of
tourists (the United States, 46.9%, Canada, 6.8%, Europe, 20.5%, other
Central American countries, 9.3%, South America, 9.2%, and Asian
countries,
2.5%). For example, foreign tourists comprise the majority of tourists
in the National Park of Tortuguero in the Province of Limon. In this
park,
foreign tourists have statistically eliminated the domestic tourists
during
the last eco-tour boom (see Fig.2)

(2) Physical Nature

The physical nature of Costa Rica, via icons and cliches,
appears in
a variety of media, such as the graphic journal of the Costa Rican
Airline
(LACSA), illuminations advertising eco-tour agencies at the
International
Airport, posters and paintings along the streets of San Jose,
advertisements
for drinking water and travel agencies, TV and radio advertisements,
and
handouts at hotel fronts and government tourist offices.

Most of the foreign tourists in Central America carry travel
guidebooks
that convey broad knowledge of the Costa Rican natural environment and
culture. Eco-tourists learn symbols and discourse about the physical
nature
of Costa Rica through these books prior to their trips. Tourists thus
anticipate
experiencing the richness and natural diversity of Costa Rican physical
nature.

Field biologists and/or ecologists have called attention to
biological
diversity in the physical nature of Costa Rica through their data
collections.
Biological diversity or biodiversity is scientifically defined and
measured
and it is said that the tropical eco-system has a high degree of
diversity.
Biologists, particularly from North America, have played an important
role
in accumulating vast data about the eco-system in Costa Rica. Their
scientific
reports have exerted great influence over the formulation and
implementation
of environmental policies in Costa Rica. The lobbying activities of
biologists
have even successfully persuaded the government to designate additional
areas as natural parks.

The multivalent manifestation of Nature is culturally
constructed, not
only by the professional ecologists, but also by all kinds of
middle[wo]men.

(3) Middle[wo]men

The Costa Rican government established its tourist bureau in
1931 and
reorganized it in 1951. A North American travel agency established the
first eco-tour in 1975. There are several major eco-tour agencies in
Costa
Rica, both national and foreign owned. The mid-1980s witnessed the
establishment
of these major eco-tour agencies. According to a study conducted by
Elizabeth
Boo in 1988, one-third of tour agencies in Costa Rica claimed that they
specialized in eco-tours. When conducting my survey in 1993-94, I found
that all tour agencies I visited provided some form of packaged and
ordered
eco-tours.

Workers for travel agencies, such as tour guides, drivers, and
park
staff, are almost all Costa Ricans and bilingual in English or another
European language. The ability to speak a foreign language is a
prerequisite
for becoming employed in tourist industries in Costa Rica. There are
also
volunteers from North America and Europe in national parks. Most
volunteers
speak English and Spanish.

A broad approach to the eco-tour in Costa Rica is called for,
because
there are also individual eco-tourists who avoid contact with the
middle
(wo)men. There are three representative forms of tourist participation
in an eco-tour: (1) group tour, (2) individual trip, and (3) individual
guided tour.

(1) Group Tour : A travel agency organizes a group tour. The
agency
provides a variety of tour packages according to destinations, level of
difficulty, and cost. A travel agency will cooperate with another
travel
agency when it cannot satisfy the requests of customers. They also
secure
profits by sharing rebates. In a group tour, a driver picks up the
customers
at various hotels and takes them to their destinations. In some cases,
a tour agency owns a private reservation. In this case, tourists
sometimes
have to visit the reservation designated by the agency.

(2) Individual Trip: Individual tourists travel without any
interference
of travel agencies. Some of them get to a national park by a rented car
or public transportation using road maps and travel guide books. An
individual
tour is less expensive than a group tour. The ability to speak Spanish
is advantageous to individual travel in the country. Public
transportation
users, mainly backpackers from Europe, often speak Spanish. Among
rented
car users, almost all of whom are from the United States, there are
some
who cannot speak Spanish well.

(3) Individual Guided Tour: On an individual guided tour,
tourists hire
a professional nature guide through an eco-tour agency. The guide will
do all the paperwork to enter a private or national park and tourists
can
travel in the area of the park with the assistance of the guide.
Tourists
have to prepare their own camping gear. The tourists may embark on a
mountaineering
trip or visit a reservation of the indigenous population. Tourists
typically
form a party; therefore an individual guided tour can be considered a
custom-made
group tour. Because the tour is custom-made, the cost is greater.

3. Eco-Tourism in Costa Rica

Articles, books, travel guidebooks and government brochures
provide
data on the general view of eco-tourism in Costa Rica. These sources
refer
to several advantageous factors in the international setting to explain
how and why Costa Rican eco-tourism developed. These factors may be
divided
into (1) ecological conditions, (2) accessibility, (3) management, (4)
ethnic relations, and (5) economic factors of tourism. A typical
description
is as follows.

(1) The natural environment of Costa Rica consists of various
eco-systems,
such as tropical dry forests, tropical rain forests, and mangrove
forests.
These eco-systems embrace 1,260 to 1,500 species of trees, 205 species
of mammals, 849 species of birds, 218 species of reptiles, and at least
9,000 species of plants.

In the history of Costa Rica, various factors have contributed
to the
preservation of nature. First, population, indigenous and mestizos, was
small and did not increase rapidly until the early Nineteenth Century.
Coffee production did not result in major deforestation because its
period
of expansion ended at the close of the Nineteenth Century, although the
boom which started the 1840s caused some deforestation westward from
the
central highland. The introduction of pesticides and new varieties of
coffee
and labor intensification have prevented further deforestation since
the
early Twentieth Century. There are few natural resources and the
population
was too small to exploit these resources. Thus, Costa Rica has remained
a natural ecosystem. Sixty percent of its population resides in San
Jose
and its vicinity, although this area occupies a very small percentage
of
the total land. Thus, Costa Rica has not engaged in large scale
destruction
of forests. However, it has recently been pointed out that the speed of
deforestation in Costa Rica is the highest in Central America despite
the
government policy of nature conservation.

(2) The road network, central to which is the Pan-American
Highway,
has extended 35,000 kilometers (5,600 kilometers has been paved).

(3)The forests (15,900 square kilometers) cover 31 percent of
the total
land. There are more than 34 national parks and natural preservation
areas
under the jurisdiction of the National Park Agency and the General
Office
of Forestry, both in the Ministry of Natural Resources. Natural parks,
some of which are privately owned, are well maintained. The Forest Law
of 1969, the objective of which is to conserve the land, divides the
protected
areas into six categories: national parks, biological preservation
areas,
forest preservation areas, animal and bird preservation areas, national
monuments, and soil conservation areas. These protected areas occupy
over
11% of the country. Travel agencies, which are all privately owned,
take
tourists to national or private natural parks and preservation areas
and
provide access to nature, lodging, and guides.

(4) The population of Costa Rica is 3.34 million (96% "White"
[according to Costa Rican definition, Mestizo is "White"], 2%
Black, 1% Indigenous, and 1% Chinese). Immigrants from North America
and
Europe and White Costa Ricans dominate management of the tourist
industry.
Workers such as guides and drivers are almost all Costa Ricans. Most of
the foreign tourists come from North America and Europe.

(5) In general, the gender ratio among tourists is balanced. The
older
tourists are, the higher their incomes and the shorter they stay in
Costa
Rica. There are various eco-tour packages, ranging from $40 to $50 for
a one-day tour to several hundred dollars for a one-week tour. The cost
of a tour is high in relation to the per capita income of the Costa
Ricans
($2,590 in 1995). However, foreign tourists from abroad find it
inexpensive.
The number of foreign tourists has increased 15% a year since 1986
(260,000
in 1986 and 700,000 in 1993). Tourism will likely become more important
as a foreign exchange earner than traditional banana exports. Tourism
and
its related industries currently earn $500 to $600 million in foreign
currency
(see Fig. 3). It is no exaggeration to say that tourism is the largest
industry in Costa Rica.

The general information summarized above provides background for
an
ethnographic understanding of Costa Rica, gleaned from various sources,
occasionally trivial, sometimes tedious, and sometimes misleading.
However
much it goes against the grain, a cultural anthropologist studying
tourism
must examine details of such texts and discourses, for these discourses
provide anthropologists as well as tourists with images of the land
which
compose and strengthen the components of experience. The eco-tour also
has a reflexive character; eco-tourists see physical nature, produce
discourse
about it, and are influenced by their own discourse when they see
physical
nature again. Therefore, a study of eco-tourism should analyze Nature
as
an abstract cultural construction that exerts influence over the
behavior
of eco-tourists.

4. Analysis of Nature as a Cultural Constructed

4.1 Nature as "Staged Authenticity"

Dean MacCannell, author of "The Tourist" criticizes Daniel
Boorstein's hypothesis that modern tourism turned out to be a
"pseudo-event"
while it transformed travelers into tourists, stripping them of their
subjectivity.
On the contrary, MacCannell argues that tourists are seeking
authenticity
while the "pseudo-event" is a result of the social relations
of tourism. MacCannell's argument about authenticity relates to two
realms
of tourism; the "front" and the "back" regions, to
use the terms of Erving Goffman. Goffman analyzes the dramaturgy of
everyday
life in his book, "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life."
In his scheme, the audience can only see the front, while performers
can
see both front and back regions. The audience wants to peep into the
back,
which is hidden from their sight, for they tend to think that "reality"
resides at the back. MacCannell argues that this type of mystification
of the back is needed to solidify a social reality for both audience
and
performer. In this sense, MacCannell does not focus solely on the
process
through which an audience tries to find the back region, but on a
dialectic
process of mystification and exposure of reality.

The audience in tourism wants to find a real world, hidden back
region.
However, left to their own devices, tourists are unable to find the
back
region because local people at a tourist location do not want it
exposed.
To satisfy tourists, travel agencies feature what MacCannell calls
"staged
authenticity." He gives a few examples of "staged authenticity,"
such as school field trips to fire stations, factories, or banks and
tours
to the Cape Kennedy Space Center. What the tourists see there is a
staged
part of the prohibited area that they may see temporarily, rather than
the full extent of backstage business. This "staged" back is
"something like a living museum," which has yet to find analytical
terms. It can be said that the "staged" back region is not a
"pseudo-event" but a product of the dialectic process of mystification
and exposure of "reality." We examine this dialectic process
in the context of tropical forests.

A protected area of physical nature is a heterogeneous space
consisting
of areas opened and closed to tourists. Tourists can walk only in areas
opened to them. Areas opened to eco-tourists are different from "the
real" forest, where only scientists and the managers of the natural
park can walk (see Fig. 4, especially the left side).

Eco-tourists understand that they are seeing a "staged" physical
nature and know that a "real" physical nature resides in the
prohibited area. They learn correct codes of behavior through
explanations
given by the park service and its guides about the importance of
prohibited
areas to scientific research. Thus, the "staging" of physical
nature gives order to Nature as a cultural production, which regulates
eco-tourist behavior.

The eco-tour itself is a form of staged authenticity. Eco-tours
consist
of artificial experiences fitted into physical nature. For example, in
one tropical rain forest in central Costa Rica, there is a high-quality
eco-tour lodge -- "five stars without electricity" -- designed
to fit into the jungle. Hot water runs from a solar heating system. A
newspapers
article for foreign tourists declares that, "This is what "ecotourism"
is all about." This sales copy for would-be eco-tourists, tells them
what to expect from a real eco-tour. "But it is no resort, although
the occasional misguided guest does arrive with tennis rackets and hair
dryers looking for color television and room service."

Sometimes "staged authenticity" becomes a pervasive "reality"
for tourists. For example, the Quichua people manage an eco-tour on the
upper Amazon in Ecuador. Eco-tourists participate in sacred rituals and
visit indigenous craft production sites with native guides in the
tropical
rain forest. A real shaman presides over the ritual, so it is an
authentic
event, however, the performance is given for tourists attending a
ceremony,
not for healing illness. Interestingly, the Quichua allow eco-tourists
to stay in traditional bamboo lodges and use candles at night so that
the
tourists may enjoy the "real" life of the tropical rain forest.
The native people, however, live in concrete block, tin-slate houses,
lit
up by home electric generators.

It is not appropriate to consider the "staged authenticity"
of the bamboo lodge with candle light as a hyper-realistic duplication,
or what Jean Baudrillard called a "simulacrum." Nor is it appropriate
to relegate this twisted relation between reality and "staged
authenticity"
to an anti-utopia, dead end of consumptive society. On the contrary,
the
Quichua people create the "staged authenticity" of their culture
to negotiate with foreign tourists. Further, the native people and
eco-tourists
accept the "staged authenticity" as an essence of tropical rain
forest life, which is neither real nor a fictive. Here, "staged
authenticity"
relies upon mutual agreement between the two groups.

4.2 Cultural Production in the Forest

Both eco-tourists and professional ecologists engage in the
production
of culture by observing physical nature but in different ways;
eco-tourists
confirm their anticipated view of Nature by seeing plants and animals
in
a natural reservation while ecologists try to find laws in physical
nature.

To clarify how the activities of eco-tourists contribute to the
production
of culture, let us consider a definition of "culture." This work
follows that of Raymond Williams, the English Marxist literary critic.
Williams stated that culture is a "particular way of life which
expresses
certain meanings and values, not only in art and learning, but also in
institutions and ordinary behaviour." Therefore, the objective in
analyzing a culture is to find "implicit and explicit meanings and
values in a particular way of life." Williams argues that a society
regulates a culture from outside, whereas culture gives values and
meanings
to the ways of life followed by members of the culture. A society
exerts
influences on culture, but not all the members of a society can equally
enjoy the potential of a culture. Building on this argument concerning
the relation between culture and society, Yoshinobu Ota argues that "a
society as an outside force exerts influences over a situation in which
a culture is produced." However, he adds, "a social process of
transforming 'a space' into 'a space worth living in' produces a
culture."

Society and history constrain culture. These constraints also
limit
the numbers of alternative ways of life and the ways of changing
cultural
hegemony. Nonetheless, social and historical constraints may have a
positive
meaning to those who want to transform the culture. Members of a
certain
society may be able to demolish the previous way of life and create a
new
one through conditions constrained by outside forces. This process can
be observed as a productive activity of the culture. It has been
neglected
among anthropologists for a long time. More than one hundred years ago,
Franz Boas, having theorized the relation between social and historical
conditions and the creation of culture, declared, "[i]t is important
to observe the fight of individuals against tribal customs."

Eco-tourists produce a new culture by transforming the meaning
of physical
nature, a space provided by the eco-tour, into a space worth living in.
To enjoy an eco-tour is to engage in a process of cultural production
(see
Fig. 4, especially the right half). A space for the production of
culture
is not necessarily homogeneous. There exists several contexts around
this
space for the production of culture depending on the form of tour,
ethnicity
and social class of eco-tourists. A comparison between (1) an expensive
eco-tour in which eco-tourists use a lodge in a private reservation and
(2) a one-day package tour will reveal numerous differences in
destinations,
forms, costs, nationalities, ages, and languages.

(1) Expensive Eco-tour

An expensive eco-tour is an exclusive, individual guided tour
conducted
primarily in English for foreigners who are middle-aged and over. The
participants
in this type of tour can roam freely in a forest.

(2) One-day package tour

A one-day package tour is a less expensive, guided group tour,
held
in a public space, such as a national nature reserve, and conducted in
English and Spanish. The participants are mainly families and younger
individuals
from Costa Rica and foreign countries. Tourist behavior is more
homogeneous
on an expensive tour than on a one-day package tour. On a one-day
package
tour, participants and their behaviors are as diverse as on an ethnic
tour
or a heritage tour.

The production of culture in eco-tourism has strong connections
to consumption
within the capitalist economy. Participants in eco-tours become
consumers
by buying souvenirs. However, eco-tourists cannot purchase physical
nature
itself; they can only buy representations of physical nature, such as
T-shirts
with animals on them and wooden carvings of birds. They also bring back
nuts, shells, and flowers in dried and pressed form. These commodities
and souvenirs are signs that prove they have visited physical nature.
This
signifying process converts physical nature into a commodity and a
commemorative
activity.

Eco-tourism does not monopolize this signifying process. Let us
take
an example outside the context of tourism. A British cosmetics chain,
the
Body Shop, sells a series of products made from trees and grasses in
the
tropical forests of the Amazon. The company uses pictures of a male
Kayapo
Indian decorated with traditional ornaments in its advertising posters.
The Nature of the Kayapo, which emphasizes their physical appearance
rather
than their culture, is used to differentiate the product from others on
the market. However, it does not necessarily follow that the eco-tour
and
the Body Shop indiscriminately abuse physical nature for consumption.
The
success of the eco-tour and the Body Shop presupposes a process of
selection
and elaboration of physical nature; the Body Shop selects and
elaborates
upon representations of nature through the Kayapo Indian and consumers
choose the representation. This brings us to the question, who
determines
the selection and elaboration of physical nature in eco-tourism?

4.3 Social Consciousness of Sustainability

Eco-tourism has emerged as a typical model for the practice of
sustainable
development during the last decade. The idea of sustainable development
appeared in the Brundtland report, "Our Common Future," for the
United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987.
The report points out a trade-off relationship between nature
conservation
and development. The key concept of sustainable development is a
harmonious
combination of conservation, the preservation of natural resources, and
development. An agroforester who holds eco-tours in high regard
believes
the objective of eco-tours is to show clearly how "the economically
sound conservation and management of a tropical rain forest can serve
the
needs of landowners and governments, as well as the needs of the
planet."
In the era of sustainable development, any eco-tour agency is required
to be ecologically healthy; there is a moral imperative to sustainable
development.

Eco-tourists as consumers are not free from this moral
imperative either.
They feel that they have to choose a travel agency that is conscious of
environmental concerns. Their decision has the same roots as the
"Green"
consumer movement. In this context consumers have to refrain from
wasting
natural resource and to purchase environmentally safe products. Both
eco-tourists
and "Green" consumers share the same kind of consumer ethics.

Eco-conscious consumers and eco-tour agencies sometimes
legitimize formal
rules between them. For example, a famous travel agency in Panama
organizes
ethnic tours to visit the Kuna people, one of the indigenous groups in
Panama, and/or eco-tours to the Barro Colorado Island in the Panama
Canal.
After the agency gives relevant explanation to their clients, it
requires
them to promise to follow the rules by signing a document and
stipulating
sanctions necessary for environmental protection. Far from feeling
coerced,
eco-tourists gladly enter into the contract with the agency, thinking
that
they have joined a morally respectable form of tourism.

The eco-tourist as an eco-conscious moral subject can be
embodied in
the "presentation of self" at tourist settings. It is easier
to find this embodiment in consumers of a long-stay eco-tour than in
those
of a one-day eco-tour, since the participants become more willing to
express
themselves to each other after a longer period of acquaintance. The
best
time to observe this "presentation of eco-conscious self" is
dinner time, when the eco-tourists return to their lodge and talk about
what they saw in the forest. However, only limited numbers of tourists
stay at a lodge.

At the dinner table, the eco-tourists split into several groups
and
begin relaxed conversations. They are couples comprised of engineers
and
managers, mainly from North America and Europe, between middle-age and
retirement. They conduct conversations in English except when they need
to talk to waiters and the kitchen staff in Spanish. They skip
formalities
such as self-introductions and immediately begin information exchange
regarding
animals and plants they saw in the forests and on the trails. Their
conversations
extend into interesting, less well-known spots in other preservation
areas
of Costa Rica. By the time dessert is served, the topics of their
conversations
include global issues, such as environmental pollution, and the
experiences
of "vagabonds," as they call themselves from trips all over the
world. Their conversations are limited to those interests common to
nature-lovers.
MacCannell points out that, although moral agreement based on
individual
values has lost ground in modern western society, normative standards
exert
extensive influence over the modern tourist setting. His argument also
holds true for eco-tourism.

The social status of eco-tourists may also explain their ethical
sensibilities
and tastes. According to French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu,
intellectuals
typically see nature as the subject of their romanticism. Intellectuals
and professors belong to the ruling class along with bourgeoisie,
however,
intellectuals are wealthy in cultural capital but poor in economic
capital,
whereas the bourgeoisie are wealthy in both types of capital. Bourdieu
argues that the taste for nature among intellectuals is a culture
counter
to that of the bourgeoisie, because intellectuals can ill afford
capital-intensive
nature-based leisure activities, such as tennis or golf at a resort.
Equipped
with ample economic and cultural capital, the bourgeoisie can afford
expensive
leisure pursuits and tend to prefer an orderly form of nature to a
messy
jungle. It could be argued that the desire of the petit bourgeoisie to
return to nature resulted from their education in the nature-oriented
romanticism
of intellectuals. This interpretation might explain why eco-tourists
refrain
from asking about the economic backgrounds of other tourists and simply
talk about nature throughout their conversations. The mode of
conversation
among eco-tourists may have a basis in their social positions.

Eco-tourists put primary emphasis upon their internal
experiences and
values. This is revealed both by conversations and by acceptance of
eco-tour
advertisements that say, in effect, "here we are not part of a resort."
Their preference for nature over superficial civilization, which they
ridicule,
fits with the romantic view of nature held by the petit bourgeoisie.

Is there any principle that makes eco-tourists "distinct"
(in Bourdieu's sense) from those in other categories? One
characteristic
that seems quite paradoxical in light of their value commitments is
that
ecotourists show strong sensitivity to appearance. Their equipment,
such
as backpacks, ponchos, trekking boots, hats, and binoculars, make them
appear superior to other tourists. Eco-tourists are quite conspicuous
on
the streets when they return from a forest because of their costume.
Eco-tourists
are interested in the quality of their clothes, especially the sewing
and
materials, rather than in their brands. Eco-tourists appear to
consciously
use clothes as tools to represent their superiority. As Dick Hebdige
put
it, clothing style functions here "as signifying practice."

5. Nature in the World System

Physical nature is always seen as a meaningful, socially
constructed
nature. This implies that Nature exists as a space in human
imagination;
an imagined territorial space. Property rights divide the "territory"
of physical nature; part of nature is transferable from one owner to
another
through the transfer of property rights. Let us look then, at the trade
in Nature through relationships between the state, trans-national
corporate
networks, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

5.1 State initiatives

The national government lays the first claim to Nature in Costa
Rica.
The government, rather than indigenous or local people, encourages
conservation
and the preservation of nature, while promoting tourism and considering
biological diversity as a natural resource. The national park system of
Costa Rica started in 1970 with its original objective being the
protection
of forest resources. It was not until the mid-1980s that the government
recognized the importance of tourism as a means of economic development
and saw the country's abundance of nature as a natural attraction to
tourists.
The establishment of eco-tour agencies coincided with the government's
recognition of the importance of Nature. First, the government created
a national park system as a means of protecting natural resources.
Second,
the government established natural preservation areas for tourism.
Finally,
the private eco-tourism industry grew using an infrastructure built by
the government.

The years after 1990 have witnessed another development in
thinking
about Nature. The new trend sees Nature as a potential natural resource
as well as a source of tourism. The contract between the Costa Rican
government
and a U.S.-based trans-national pharmaceutical company, Merck &
Co.,
Inc., in 1991 is an example of governmental control over newly
recognized
natural resources. The contract stipulates that the government will
allow
Merck to use substances obtained from animals, plants, and bacteria in
the tropical rain forests in Costa Rica for the development of new
medicines.
Merck made prior investments of $113.5 million in the National
Institute
of Biodiversity (INBio) and spent 10 percent of its research budget on
the national preservation areas. The INBio, in technical cooperation
with
Merck, collects samples, analyzes natural materials, conducts
rudimentary
refinement, and sends the samples and the preliminary products to Merck
in the United States. When Merck succeeds in commercializing new
medicines,
it retains the patent and pays a royalty (5%) to the INBio. The
INBio-Merck
deal is different from the usual deal between a developing country and
a company from a developed country. The arrangement shows how a
developing
country with rich natural resources can successfully attain its
legitimate
claim (a five percent royalty) irrespective of the power of developed
countries.

According to Yuzo Suwa, some countries (e.g., Indonesia and
Brazil)
complain that a five percent royalty is too low in relation to the
profits
that companies in developed countries make. Developing countries have
different
understandings concerning the extent to which they can promote
development
of Nature by themselves. Thus, developing countries adopt different
attitudes
toward royalties. Increasingly, developing countries are adopting a
policy
for the state management of gene resources, which is seen by developed
countries as an unnecessary form of state intervention and an obstacle
to free research and development initiated by private capital.
Nationalists
oppose the contract between the Costa Rican government and Merck. No
one
any longer ridicules white tourists and ecologists as "los gringos
locos" ("crazy whites") for their enthusiasm about entering
the jungle. In the context of resource nationalism, foreigners, whether
individuals or companies, are unfairly taking the country's gene
resources
abroad. Japan, a nation advanced in biotechnology, shares
responsibility
for taking away gene resources from developing countries. When I
attended
a conference, its attendees, mainly natural scientists and medical
doctors,
discussed methods of supplying Japan with gene resources, including
blood
and germ DNA, by clearing the customs of a host country. They seemed to
believe that gene resource nationalism is unfair and detrimental to
"the
freedom of research."

Nature as a natural resource has encouraged nationalists to
propagate
their influence among the Costa Rican populace. The Second
International
Symposium on "Ecology, Tourism, and Community" held in San Jose
in May 1992 was a result of this drive. The five-day Conference saw 630
participants (officially registered) from abroad and Costa Rica,
including
the President, the Minister of Tourism, and various experts from the
United
States and Costa Rica, such as tropical biologists, tourism
researchers,
and regional economists. The Conference included more than fifty
lectures
and five workshops. The government has become the controller of
physical
nature as a resource and Nature has become the driving force behind
Costa
Rica's economic development.

5.2 The Intervention of NGOs

At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(Earth
Summit) in 1992, developing countries accused developed countries of
not
taking responsibility for the environmental destruction they have
caused.
This was a replay of the United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment
in Stockholm in 1972, where the developing countries claimed their
right
to economic development and resisted the imposition of environmental
protection
regulations by developed countries. The North develops, or exploits,
Nature
to a far greater extent than the South. In the developing countries
local
people are suffering from destruction and poverty while tourists from
developed
countries, suffering from the stressors of industrialization, visit
their
poorer neighbors for rest and relaxation. According to those developing
countries, eco-tourism can be an extension of imperialism or a symptom
of neo-colonialism. The boom in eco-tourism reflects the fact that
imperialism
has penetrated the most remote areas of the Earth while the nature of
imperialism,
as Nash has pointed out, leads local people in those remote places to
respond
spontaneously to its imperialistic activities.

In addition, eco-tourism is part of a long history of the
"Europeanization"
of the environments of the Earth. Alfred Crosby argues that Europeans
changed
various parts of the Earth into "Neo-Europes" by bringing animals
and plants originating from the Old World into occupied colonies and
propagating
them. Europeans have also collected seeds of plants and domesticated
them
for transplanting in various places in the world. Eco-tourism is a
cultural
version of Europeanization of the Nature. The developed countries in
Europe
and North America and their bio-tech industries taught the "skills"
of eco-tourism to the Costa Ricans and made them understand the
importance
of eco-systems and gene resources. Along with the "spearheads of
capitalism,"
such as bio-technology industries, consumers in developed countries
share
the responsibility for transforming developing areas into
"Neo-Europes."
A good example of the involvement and commitment of consumers is the
protest
against the "Hamburger Connection" in the 1980s.

The 1980s witnessed a global decrease in tropical forests and
increasing
concern over this issue. Environmentally-oriented NGOs in developed
countries
embarked upon urgent activities in this critical decade. Myers's famous
article "The Hamburger Connection: How Central America's Forests Become
North America's Hamburgers, " which appeared in the environmental
journal of the Royal Swedish Science Academy, triggered the discussion.
The article argued that production of beef for export to the United
States
had been the main cause of the deforestation of Central America for two
decades before 1981. According to Myers, the "materialistic life-style"
of the United States, a First World country, led to the deforestation
of
Central America. Increasing demands for beef in fast-food industries,
which
became central to the American life-style, along with a rise in the
price
of domestic beef and the parity of beef prices between the United
States
and Central America caused the transformation of the tropical forests
of
Central America into ranches. Thus, Central America became the world's
largest producer of beef for export.

Myers's article attracted the attention of the Costa Rican mass
media
and stirred in Costa Ricans a feeling of resource nationalism. This
issue
also interested American consumer advocacy groups. In the United States
they organized a nationwide boycott against major hamburger fast food
chain
companies in 1987. The spokesperson of the Burger King Company declared
that they would not use beef from ranches built upon the ruins of
tropical
rain forests. A San Francisco-based environmental group, "the Rain
Forest Action Network," issued a full page advertisement in the New
York Times in 1989, the caption of which read, "Why We're Losing 50,000
Acres of Rain Forest A Day" alongside a picture of a man eating a
hamburger. The NGOs in the developed countries worked to halt the
destruction
of physical nature, while the industrial networks of developed
countries
exploited Nature.

Eco-tourism in Costa Rica, a "success story of sustained
development,"
has similarities and dissimilarities to the hamburger connection. The
hamburger
connection reveals the relation between the consumption of imported
beef
in the United States and the destruction of tropical forests in Central
America. The same reciprocal relationship exists in the
"Debt-for-Nature
Swap," an NGO movement to liquidate defaulted debts in exchange for
government policies to protect physical nature. "Fair trade"
movements, which supply Third World products to consumers in developed
countries, are also part of this reciprocal relationship. This
reciprocity
occurs not only at an economic level but also at a symbolic one. All
the
movements relate to a kind of consumer ethics. The activities of
volunteers
on reserves have increasingly strengthened NGO projects to connect the
nationals of Costa Rica to developed countries. The Internet or World
Wide
Web provides detailed information about job opportunities, language
requirements,
housing, and rewards for volunteers that the protected areas need.
High-quality
natural lodges accept reservations through e-mail. Eco-tourism will
flourish
by using this new high tech infrastructure. Eco-tourism has driven
Costa
Rica into the world economy through the symbolic consumption of Nature.
At the same time, eco-tourism has deepened the dependence of a
developing
country on developed ones, without which it will not be able to exist.

6. Conclusion

As we discussed, physical nature is not independent of the
culturally
constructed nature. The latter can change the former; to refrain from
eating
hamburger "saves" the tropical forests. In discussing eco-tourism
we have to reconsider the nature/culture dichotomy. The nature/culture
dichotomy, familiar to many cultural anthropologists through the works
of Claude Levi-Strauss, suggests that man-made rules, such as marriage
and cooking, transformed nature into relative and specific cultural
forms.
However, in this discussion, nature is more realistic than nature used
as a metaphor that contrasts with culture. This paper has argued that
Nature
functions as if it were a stage on which human beings work, or a place
where the state asserts control over its natural resources, and where
people
argue and struggle.

Eco-tourists are actors on the stage of Nature. Eco-tourists
also comprise
a collective category, an operational category equivalent to "an ethnic
group" and "a super-ethny." Thus, the eco-tourists' notion
of Nature becomes a subject of anthropological research in the same
manner
as an ethnic group's knowledge and consciousness. The authority of
biological
science is the backbone of the management of nature reserves, the stage
for the eco-tour. Natural sciences exert influence over Nature.

Van den Burghe says that ethnic-tourism is a “caricature of
ethnography."
I would say eco-tourism is a “caricature of ecology." North American
ecologists
have protected nature in Costa Rica, a treasure of biological
resources,
by writing articles and lobbying to designate areas as national parks.
Eco-tourists produce and reinforce their consciousness of environmental
protection by their symbolic consumption of physical nature.
Environmentalists
organized a boycott of hamburgers in the United States to halt
deforestation
in Costa Rica. Ecologists, eco-tourists, and environmentalists in the
developed
countries turned “a space" (physical nature) given to them, into “a
space
worth living in"(socially processed nature), by making Nature the
driving
force of their activities.

The activities of these North Americans might not bring about
any significant
results in protecting nature. One may criticize them for “just helping
to throw the Costa Ricans into the world economy ." This paper,
however,
has shown that the significance of their cultural productions deserves
a more positive evaluation. Eco-tourists have shown a way of cultural
production
that anyone can adopt in their everyday lives; that is, to use any
tools
available to develop a strategy of creating “a space worth living in."

Notes

1. This paper is based on a translation of the paper entitled
”Kosutarica
No Eko-turizumu" in Ido No Minzokushi (Tokyo: Iwanamishoten, 1996),
pp.61-93
by same author. The English version is substantially revised.

2. I stayed in Costa Rica altogether approximately fifty days
during
a series of four visits from the end of 1992 to the beginning of 1995.
A Research Subsidy from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and
Culture project, ”Comparative Studies of Eco-tourism in the Caribbean
Sea,"
allowed me to do research after 1994. The representative of this
project,
Professor Shozo Ishimori, National Museum of Ethnology, was especially
instrumental in this research. Marco Picado, an official of the Tourist
Bureau of the Costa Rican Government, and anthropologist Francia Bdrowi
provided me with unpublished materials and gave me invaluable
suggestions.
Many eco-tourists and guides from all over the world as well as from
Costa
Rica told me, an anthropologist cum eco-tourist, about their precious
experiences.
I would like to thank all of them.

3. I hyphenate eco-tour, eco-tourist, and eco-tourism to emphasize
differences
between tour, tourist, and tourism. The hyphenated ‘eco- ’ also
signifies
a social phenomenon different from an individual touristic one.
Research
often confuses the social phenomenon of eco-tourism and the individual
tour.

8. Demands of the Costa Ricans for eco-tours have yet to be
studied.
There are no Costa Rican tourists on eco-tours organized by major
eco-tour
agencies for foreign eco-tourists. However, I came across a group of
Costa
Rican tourists in an area of the Pacific coast where sea turtles lay
their
eggs.

9. There are more than a dozen guidebooks on Costa Rica for
foreign
tourists. B. Blake and A. Beher's The New Key to Costa Rica (Berkeley:
Ulysses Press, 1993) seemed to sell the best. By using recycled paper,
this book appeals to consumer ethics. This book is best characterized
by
the sun marks on lodges that are judged to be the most ecologically
sustainable.

11. Dr. Daniel Janzen has made the greatest contribution to the
protection,
preservation, and creation of the national parks in Costa Rica. The
number
of contributors (174) to his book, Natural History of Costa Rica
(Janzen,
ed., 1991, originally in English, 1983), amply reveal his great
academic
influence. Janzen influenced the government to designate Guanacaste as
a national park in 1989 by his purchasing land and starting research on
the tropical dry forest. The Fundaci—n Neotr—pica and the Fundaci—n de
Parques Nacionales helped him get financial aid abroad.

13. I received formal information on eco-tourism in Costa Rica
from
various sources, such as the Tourist Bureau and the Ministry of Natural
Resources of the Costa Rican government, interviews and conversations
that
I had in Costa Rica, the home page of the Institute of Latin American
Studies
at the University of Texas, LANIC, http://lanic.utexas.edu/, as well as
books mentioned in the text. This study also consulted the Pentagon’s
information
on foreign countries, commercial information by private eco-tour
agencies
in Costa Rica, and news provided by NGOs, such as the Tropical Rain
Forest
Network. This work does not cite each of the sources because they are
numerous
and up-dated daily.

31. Interactions between the eco-tour and indigenous people have
not
yet developed in Costa Rica. The indigenous, about one percent of the
total
population, live in the reservations adjacent to the national parks.
NGOs
in developed countries have organized eco-tours for the development of
their villages. The participation of the native villages may cause a
change
in the discussion of rights over Nature in the future.

32. MacCannell, op.cit., pp.39-41.

33. P. Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement
of
Taste( Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press,1984).

38. Y. Suwa, Amerika wa Kankyo Ni Yasashiinoka[ The United States
of
America is Eco-Conscious, isn’t it ?]( Tokyo:Shinhyoron,1996), p.276.

39. D. Nash, ”Tourism as a Form of Imperialism," in Smith, ed.,
op.sit.,
pp.38-40, is unable to discern the subject of imperialism. Nash seems
to
have understood the limits of a metaphor; imperialism without
subjectivity.
Nash no longer uses the term ”imperialism" in his recent work on
tourism
on a global scale (D. Nash, Anthropology of Tourism, Oxford: Pergamon,
1996). He is not interested in who controls flows of capital; he takes
superficial account only of globalized flows of capital. This is the
reason
for his limitations.